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It isn’t surprising after the ouster of Johan de Nysschen as head of Cadillac that his controversial decision to move Cadillac headquarters to New York City would be reversed.

Per a report in the Wall Street Journal, Cadillac will move their HQ back to Detroit. Reasoning given include getting sales, marketing, design, and engineering together on the cusp of the unveiling of new models like the CT4 sedan and new crossovers that Cadillac definitely needs.

It remains to be seen if de Nysschen’s departure and the shift in direction will benefit the brand.

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As of the 2019 model year, Cadillac will stop selling the ATS in sedan form. This marks 6 years of the sedan that easily out-BMW-ed BMW in a package that other makes have abandoned in a race to make their sports sedans softer and larger.

The 2019 model year will still give us the ATS and ATS-V Coupe.

Soon, Cadillac will be replacing the ATS and the CTS with the new CT5 sedan and will flesh out the model line with a smaller sedan that may be based on one of GM’s front-drive platforms.

Personally, this appears to be a big mistake for the future of the brand’s credibility and may show that GM’s bean-counter culture is back in command and enthusiasts of the Cadillac brand will suffer as a result. However, as new crossovers make it into the lineup, the sales and financial figures will look good enough.

At least until another management shift when GM tries again to recapture Cadillac’s lost mojo (but doesn’t have the will to complete).

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Let’s touch base again with Cadillac’s sales. This is the last time for the foreseeable future that we will be able to dissect the sales on a month-by-month basis now that GM has switched to quarterly sales reporting. But, let’s see what March tells us about the state of the Cadillac brand.

Sales are up in both of the brand’s largest markets. US sales were up 12.7% (1633 units) while China saw a massive spike of 45.6% (5638 units). Only the, still humorously named, ‘Rest Of World’ saw a drop. But it’s 11.9% fall only equates to a drop in sales of 258.

It may change in the coming years as more crossovers hit the Cadillac stable, but for the time being, I think we can safely say that the US is no longer Cadillac’s biggest market and may never be again.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the home market to see how things are looking.4

Excluding the discontinued SRX (which somehow still sold a single, leftover on the lot somewhere, unit in March 2018)…all models were up for the month.

XT5 is still the run-away sales champ with well over 6000 units sold in the month. An improvement of 17.2% (908 units).

Second best-selling are the variants of the Escalade (total sales between the standard and ESV version) was up 401 units (14%). It is this strength of the utility segment that is larger than just Cadillac that is driving their feverish pace of developing and launching new crossovers/utilities to increase sales.

On the sedan side, it seems we may have finally gotten through most of the drop in sales and now we are comparing apples-to-apples looking at 2017 vs 2018 numbers. Top sales in the sedan segment goes to the XTS with 1735 units sold. This marks an increase from last year of 251 units (16.9%).

The other 3 sedans also saw small gains, the represent changes that might have to do with numbers of sales days in the month (28 in March 2018 vs 27 in March 2017). So, all things being equal you would see sales as flat if the increase was not more than about 3.7%.

ATS was up 52 units (3.8%) – so flat.

CTS was up by 12 units (2.7%) – also flat to a tiny bit down when adjusted for selling days.

CT6 was up 26 units (1.4%) – same as the CTS.

We would view that as a positive result only because sales of sedans have been dropping so much for so many months. Stopping the bleeding is a positive move for the brand. Given the imminent release of the XT4 to dealers, I would expect sales to move upward significantly more than the results we have been seeing – though sedans will likely stay flat for the foreseeable future.

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The good folks over at C&D have spotted a larger Cadillac crossover undergoing tests in Michigan.

Built off the C1XX chassis (née GM’s big unibody Lambda platform) that underpins the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. This means a 3.6l V-6 as the base engine is practically a lock. A V-Sport model with turbo V-6 power is also something that wouldn’t be out of place with a Cadillac badge.

This model is expected to bow within a year and may also be a good indication how committed Cadillac, as a brand, is to the current move to the CT# and XT# naming convention. Given that the cross-town rivals at Lincoln have rediscovered the value of true names on products (something even Cadillac has been flirting with given recent rumors that a production Escala might see production and keep the Escala name).

Along with the recently debuted XT4 – Cadillac sales are sure to surge with this new product in showrooms.

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Suddenly, as of yesterday (April 18), former Cadillac head Johan de Nysschen is out.

Replacing him for now will be, former head of GM-Canada, Steve Carlisle.

de Nysschen was recruited to run Cadillac after a short stint heading Nissan’s Infiniti division where his most significant fingerprints were the change to the confusing Q and QX naming convention. Before this he headed up the VW group’s Audi brand in the Americas.

While at Cadillac since 2014, he pushed for a controversial move of the headquarters to New York. He also quashed the positioning of Cadillac’s Omega chassis sedan as a flagship. It became the CT6 and plans are in the works for something even better above it.

Speaking of CT6, he will be remembered for pushing a new CT and XT naming convention that may be scrapped now that he is gone.

It does seem that GM management never can allow Cadillac to execute a complete vision before getting cold feet and removing the brand’s top executive.

We will regret not getting to see Johan de Nysschen’s vision for the brand fully developed.